Jurong Bird Park 300804 - Rainman

[rainman]

Hi all,
My very first attempt at nature shoot...Weather is good over at JBP, no problems with setting shutter speed more than 500. Still learning how to take good pictures over high contrast background and flash photography. Especially birds hiding at the canopy. It was not easy at all!

My setup for the day 100-300 F4 1.4X TC and 28-105.

My comrades for the day (PinkFuzzyCat,elninowt and andy (forget his nick ;p ))

PinkFuzzyCat with big lens big monopod

Welcome any comments! Thanks.

 

[rainman]

Few of my fav shots

To view my full gallery for the day.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v208/rainman1978/JBP 300804/?start=0

 

[elninowt]

wah seh!!! so fast sia...

somemore post up group pic first sia.. hehe

i just got home man.. think i can only get my pics up tomorrow...

cheers!!!!

I got a similar one of the owl too.. nice freeze shot of the bugger flying thought...

now IDing is sure to be a problem for us man.. wonder if anyone can help out..??

 

[Will03]

hey my friend ! i like your owl !

 

[Newman]

The owl shot is nice. :thumbsup:
But it would be better if it was done in portrait mode to avoid the bad cropping.

 

[elninowt]

Wah Seh.. Tired Man..!!

Done up my pics liao..

comments comments!!!!!

Thanks

Pic 1

Pic2

Pic3

Pic4

 

[elninowt]

a few more

Pic5

Pic6

Pic7

Pic8

Pic9

Link to my almost empty "Album"

 

[Iceman27]

Rainmain, like your first pic. Pity on the cropping though.

elninowt, like your first pic. too. It works for me.

Cheers!

 

[jbma]

Rainman, agree with the rest. Should not have crop the own. Would be nice to have the whole pic.

Elninowt, some of the shots are underexpose and abit soft. Colors are good though.

Keep on shooting guys.

 

[chunger]

This animal is what name? It look as if it got a very great ambitions ahead of him. Cool :thumbsup:

This look great

 

[elninowt]

its called a meerkat.. There are a few different species of meerkats but it belongs to the mongoose family if i'm not wrong.

 

[elninowt]

Rainman, agree with the rest. Should not have crop the own. Would be nice to have the whole pic.

Elninowt, some of the shots are underexpose and abit soft. Colors are good though.

Keep on shooting guys.

Thanks for the comments jbma.... did have some exposure problems. wasn't shooting with an external flash cos no money to buy!!!
hehe
so was using the built in flash of the 300D. very often its either wash out, or the flash has no effect at all.. damn it..
gotta get one of those sigma flashes that rainman was using. cheaper solution to the 550EX.. no money no money!!

as for the softness, wondering if its due to the lens? (haha.. blame the equipment..) its a 75-300 4/5.6 IS USM with IS on... was shooting in the range of 1/100 to 1/300 shutter speeds. from my understanding pictures do get quite soft to the tele end of the lens with the aperature wide open. but i'm still quite new to photography. only been shooting for a month or so.

Advice?

 

[rainman]

Hi all..thanks for all the kind kind kind comments!

Yah, a pity that I didn't manage to get the whole body protrait of the owl. Most of the closeup headshots are left uncropped or very minor cropped..too used in shooting closeup and forgot abt the composition...hehe. Will bear that in mind.

Low light and high contrast photography was a headache. Try out different combinations..direct flash, bounced flash with card or diffuser, higher ISO but the result wasn't that desire. Probably need a better lens?

Anyone can advice on high contrast pics? A pity that I didn't get these 2 right.

 

[jbma]

Aiyah wish I was there. But had to work.

 

[rainman]

Aiyah wish I was there. But had to work.

Its okie Jbma...the best is always yet to come!

Looking forward to shoot with u too!

 

[2100]

Anyone can advice on high contrast pics? A pity that I didn't get these 2 right.

Just dial in more exposure compensation (as much as 1 to 2 stops more), or take note of exposure in aperture priority and use manual. Boils down to your technique.

Look in my gallery. What you get is like a high-key effect. http://www.pbase.com/sil79/inbox

To avoid blown areas in the head area, look for blinking highlights.

 

[rainman]

Thanks 2100 for ur valuable advice. Will try that out for the next shooting...

Anyway that a circular polariser will help in getting the clear blue sky?

 

[2100]

Thanks 2100 for ur valuable advice. Will try that out for the next shooting...

Anyway that a circular polariser will help in getting the clear blue sky?

Yup, would be good, there won't be much extraneous reflections from the flat clouds as shown in your pic. But a cir-pl from Hoya will cut down light by around 1+ stop, so hopefully good lighting will fall on the bird or you won't get a good shutter speed (ie sharp pics), or you boost ISO. Better cir-pl from B+W will not suffer from so much light drop though.

 

[rainman]

Another of my fav....hehe

 

[elninowt]

mmmm.... i have 1 of a full composition of the Malayan Owl.. but not as sharp.. wasn't on flash too as it was simply too far... *hiazzz*

will post up later for viewing...